THQ Inc., the exclusive videogame publisher and master interactive licensee of Nickelodeon's animated television and movie properties, will be offering a slew of games in 2003 based on some of Nick's most highly rated series.
Jon LeBrie, chief technology officer of Weta Digital, has been announced as keynote speaker of CMP Media's 17th annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 4 - 8, 2003, in San Jose, California. LeBrie is the principal architect of the digital infrastructure used to create the Academy Award-winning digital visual effects in THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.
Imagina.03, the international festival for digital images, handed out its annual awards on February 5, 2003 at a ceremony in Monaco's Grimaldi Forum. Sony Pictures Imageworks had a big night, winning awards for best direction for the short film THE CHUBBCHUBBS, directed by Eric Armstrong, and taking home best feature honors for STUART LITTLE 2. 2003 was the first year Imagina has presented a best feature film prize, and it was awarded to the feature film that had the most effective use of digital technology.
Toy manufacturer Hasbro, Inc. has scored a major coup in the licensing biz by extending its license with Lucas Licensing, Ltd., for the manufacture and distribution of STAR WARS toys and games for an additional ten years. Under the terms of the extension, the agreement is expected to run through 2018. The minimum guarantee payable to Lucas has also been reduced by $85 million to $505 million. Under its original 10-year deal, the minimum payment to Lucas was $590 million of which Hasbro has already paid $470 million.
Warner Bros. Pictures has subcontracted Cinesite Europe with all the model unit construction and miniature photography for the third HARRY POTTER film: HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. Construction work will begin immediately on the models of Hogwarts, Privet Drive, a huge marble staircase and other significant structures within the film. The model building will continue until May 2003 at the Shepperton Studios workshops, with photography scheduled to begin in early June.
London-based visual effects company The Mill has created a charging herd of bison for the new Levi's spot "Stampede," which premiered in the U.S. during the Superbowl on January 26, 2003. The spot is promoting Levi's new Type 1 jeans and was directed by Jorn Haagen at Academy, for agency BBH New York. The commercial opens with a stampede of bison running through the desert on their way to a city. They arrive in the city, knocking down lamp posts and breaking windows.
NewTek's Video Toaster will now come bundled with BOXX Technologies' award-winning 3DBOXX workstation. Video Toaster [2] is a Windows 2000-based product that processes uncompressed video in real-time and includes live keying, Internet streaming, real-time nonlinear editing, character generation, video painting and compositing, 3D animation, audio and video processing.
Recognizing the need for a file format that could serve as the industry standard, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has launched its previously proprietary extended dynamic range image file format OpenEXR to the open source community. It is available at www.openexr.net. "Historically, the visual effects community and the motion picture industry have benefited from the creation of standards," said Jim Morris, president of Lucas Digital. "OpenEXR is yet another step in this direction.
Pixels Digital has released PiXELS 3D version 4.5 for OSX. The new version includes many new features such as a built-in logo maker for easily created text and broadcast images; easier lighting solutions; Global Illumination; and a newly engineered Inverse Kinematics system. A version for OS9 is also nearing completion. Pixels Digital is offering a 30-day demo of PiXELS 4.5 for OSX users. It is currently available online. PiXELS 4.5 retails for US$399. Upgrades for existing users are also available. For more information, visit www.pixels.net.
Video game publisher Agetec, Inc. has announced COLOR QUEST as the next addition to their "Designer Series" of games. Created by TAITO, the game will be available in early May 2003, exclusively for Sony PlayStation 2. COLOR QUEST is a 3D adventure game that offers a graphics tool that allows players the ability to fully render and animate their own cast of characters. These characters are interactive within the game and become integral parts of the player's success in completing the adventure.
Three new films took the top three spots at this weekend's U.S. box office, with the action film THE RECRUIT debuting at number one with $16.5M. Right on THE RECRUIT's heels is FINAL DESTINATION 2, with visual effects by Pixel Magic. The thriller sequel arrived in second place on its debut with $16.2M. In third place was DreamWorks' motorcycle racing flick BIKER BOYZ, with primary visual effects by R!OT, earning $10.1M. KANGAROO JACK is still proving popular at the box office, slipping just two spots to fourth place.
Hayao Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY won top honors at the 30th Annual Annie Awards ceremony, taking home awards for best feature film, writing, music and direction. SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON also ran off with major awards in the categories of character design, effects animation, production design and storyboarding.
Flipside, Inc., part of the Vivendi Universal Net USA Group, has signed an exclusive three-year agreement with GameHouse, Inc. to distribute all skill-based cash competition versions of GameHouse's popular game titles including COLLAPSE, MAH JONG, BOUNCEOUT, WHATWORD? and GEMDROP. This agreement gives Flipside the opportunity to distribute these games on iWin, its cash-competitions channel. As part of the agreement, Flipside will power GameHouse's cash competitions channel at www.gamehouse.com.
Venice, California-based design and production company Motion Theory showed how skateboarders came to be in "Evolution," the newest spot in ESPNs "Without Sports" campaign. Conceived by ESPN and its agency, Wieden+Kennedy/New York, the ad debuted during the Superbowl pre-game show. "Evolution" begins with an animated surfer riding a wave. As the surfer cuts up the wave, his surfboard sprouts wheels, evolving into a skateboard.
Caligari Corporation has announced the latest version of its flagship product, trueSpace. Version 6.5 features a new animation engine aimed at meeting the needs of game developers and professional animators. TrueSpace's modeling and design environment can be used for projects ranging from print or Web design to full character animation. Version 6.5's new non-linear animation capability allows users to compose complex animations using clips of motion sequences.
CMP Media's Gama Network will spotlight game development industry leaders as keynote speakers at its 17th annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 4 - 8, 2003, in San Jose, California. The GDC is the world's largest event exclusively devoted to game development, featuring more than 300 lectures, panels, tutorials and roundtable discussions across seven content tracks.
Cordoba 2003 Animation Celebration
Cordoba, Argentina
Wednesday, May 28 - Friday, May 30, 2003
Entry Deadline: Friday, April 11, 2003
Video game TV network G4 has entered into an on-air, cross-channel and online campaign in conjunction with game publisher Eidos Interactive and game developer Core Design. The promotion will put video game character Lara Croft in a marketing program to promote both the cable channel and Eidos' popular TOMB RAIDER franchise. As part of the million-dollar agreement, G4 will produce three network promotional commercials featuring the heroine of Eidos' successful TOMB RAIDER game and motion picture series.
Anthony Tabtong has joined Charlex as senior character animator, adding his talents to Charlex's growing 3D department. Tabtong moves to the company after four years at Curious Pictures as a senior 3D character animator. At Curious Pictures, Tabtong worked on spots for Nicktoons, Disney, Lugz, AT&T, Applebees, HBO and Target, among others. His past experience includes character animation for video games.
Andrea DAmico has been appointed vice president of visual effects sales for Ascent Media, and will act as a liaison between the Ascent Media Creative Services companies, including Encore and R!OT, that provide visual effects services for feature films and television. DAmico will also continue in her role as executive producer of visual effects with R!OT, Santa Monica.
